Posnanski: Ichiro unique in baseball history

Ichiro’s approach at the plate is unlike any player in baseball history. (Photo by Lisa Blumenfeld/Getty Images)

Sports Illustrated senior writer Joe Posnanski has an interesting take in his blog on Mariners right fielder Ichiro Suzuki. He says there has never been a player like him.

Posnanski’s argument, which he backs up pretty thoroughly, is that every great player can be rightfully compared to at least a couple others. Tony Gwynn, Rod Carew and Wade Boggs were certainly singular talents, but their games bear strong resemblances.

And then there’s the style of Ichiro … the unique warm-up golf swing, the way he breaks out of the box while he swings the bat, the way he purposely jams himself sometimes to get a hit (has anyone ever gotten more hits on pop ups that drop behind the third baseman, to the left of the shortstop and in front of the left fielder?), the way he sometimes muscles up sometimes and drives the ball out — there are many around the game who think that Ichiro could hit 25-30 home runs if he was willing to sacrifice hits and batting average, which he is not.

The combination, Posnanski says, is unique in modern baseball history.

Former Seattle Post-Intelligencer editor and columnist Steve Rudman always marveled that it was hard to find any player in baseball history who bore a statistical resemblance to Ichiro. Wee Willie Keeler and George Sisler were the closest he could find. But Keeler’s career straddled the turn of the century, making it difficult to compare him to a modern player. And Sisler was a first baseman who lacked Ichiro’s defensive prowess.

Posnanski says he has never seen a player like Ichiro and doesn’t expect to in the future. Rudman would no doubt agree.